


Driving Around in Cars With Boys

by Fifthnameattempt



Category: Naruto
Genre: Background Character Deaths, F/M, Highschool AU, I'm just obsessed with Hot Mess Ino okay???, Referenced underage drinking, Teens with cars
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-08
Updated: 2021-02-08
Packaged: 2021-03-13 10:33:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,418
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29276997
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Fifthnameattempt/pseuds/Fifthnameattempt
Summary: Ino is the first one to get a car. She's pretty and popular, good at school and destined for a track and field scholarship to a D1 school. This is all very important until it's not.She blacks out at a party and her best friend's weird friend drives her home.
Relationships: Sai/Yamanaka Ino
Comments: 8
Kudos: 31





	Driving Around in Cars With Boys

**Author's Note:**

> This started off as a character study of the Rookie Nine via what cars they would drive if they were Midwestern teens in small, dying industrial towns. Then I got fixated on the idea of Ino knowing how to drive stick and thus... this. I may eventually rewrite and expand this into an actual thing, but I thought I'd put it out into the world as-is for fun.

Ino is the first to get a car.

Sakura says it’s because she’s spoiled, but Ino has been listening to the Ino-Shika-Cho parents complain about their kids’ track schedule since the sixth grade, so she’s pretty sure it has less to do with spoiling and a lot more to do with finally getting rid of her parents’ participation in the carpool.

But regardless of the reasoning, she’s not complaining when she gets home from the driving exam and finds a beat-up, pale blue Volkswagen Beetle waiting for her in the driveway.

“You pay for gas.” Her father tells her seriously, handing over the keys. “You drive the speed limit. You and the boys get to every practice and meet at the exact time Coach tells you to be there.”

She nods, gripping the keys eagerly agreeing to the terms. “Of course! Not a single minute late!”

“Curfew this year is ten pm.” Ino blinks in shock. That’s a full _hour_ later than usual and she hadn’t even asked for it. Inoichi’s serious face cracks a smile and he ruffles his teenage daughter’s hair before she can protest. “Happy birthday, Princess.”

“Thanks, Dad!” She throws one arm around his shoulders while fixing her hair with the other hand. “Can I take it out now?”

“Tank’s full.” He says, stepping away from the door so she can get in it and then he leaning into the open, driver’s side window. “The clutch will be a little tougher than you’re used to, but it’ll last another year or two. Remember to-“

“Shift out of curves and give myself lots of braking room?” She waves him off. She has only ever driven manual because, as her dad often been quoted, _sane people don’t let computers shift gears for them_. She presses down the clutch and turns the engine over, pleased at the steady, low growl that rumbles through the car. “I’ll be home for dinner. Love you lots!”

And then she’s rolling down out of the driveway before her dad has time to get out of the window frame. She has a few stops to make today, but the most important one is Forehead’s house. It wouldn’t be a proper birthday if she didn’t get to gloat a little.

Junior year is a whirlwind of classes, clubs, and practice. She remembers it like this: Early morning pick-ups, laying on the horn until Aunt Mito throws Shikamaru out of the house by his ear. Half-priced _SONIC_ milkshakes after practice and yelling at Choji for spilling ice cream on her upholstery. Too many people in the Beetle’s tiny back seat, with Naruto curled up in the boot so they can spend thirty minutes at the beach. Driving two towns over to the big mall with Hinata and Sakura; blasting the _Rocketman_ on the fuzzy stereo on the way back home.

It’s a golden year, but by the end of the summer Ino feels stretched thin. Needed in too many places at once. She’s glad that almost all of her friends manage to get their own vehicles before the start of senior year. Even Naruto, who couldn’t hold down any job for two, consecutive weeks, saves up enough to replace the bike he’d crashed the year before.

She picks up more shifts at the flower shop in the fall and applies to Horticulture programs at schools with good track teams. She still picks up the boys for school every morning. Coach Asuma pushes them harder than ever before and they rise to the challenge. By spring, they are dominating local meets and expected to clean up at state finals. Acceptance letters start coming in and the future feels breathlessly close.

Shikamaru turns eighteen the weekend before their last competition. He goes straight to the DMV and – despite no one having seen him behind the wheel of a car, ever – passes the driving exam on his first try. The next weekend, he packs his mom’s minivan full of their friends and family and everyone watches Ino-Shika-Cho crush one last high school track meet.

That night they all break curfew, eating a sheetcake with plastic forks and no plates in the parking lot of the local Walmart. Ino, Shikamaru, and Chouji are still wearing their respective gold medals. They drink room-temperature Sprite out of glass bottles and chant Ino’s final high jump score which is the new state record. They talk about the upcoming graduation and start making plans for the summer.

No one says it out loud, but they all feel it in their hearts. This is their last guaranteed summer together. For the first time ever there is no course work to do. There will be criminally low expectations from their parents and guardians, and nothing but long, slow days of freedom ahead. Nostalgia for this one, perfect summer is building and they haven’t even experienced it yet. They are drunk on the promise of it.

Which is when things go completely to shit.

“Ouch.” Ino wakes up as the car goes over the speed bump at the entrance of her nice, suburban neighborhood and her head bangs against the cool, hard glass of the window.

“Oh, good.” A cool, polite voice speaks out on her left. “You’re awake. I didn’t know how to get you into your house if you were still passed out.”

“Why does my head hurt?” Ino groans, peering through half-closed eyes at her driver and trying to collect her memories of earlier in the night. “I didn’t drink _that_ much.”

It wasn’t even a lie, although she’d told similar lies many times in recent memory. She remembers doing one shot with Kiba and finishing maybe half a beer before things start to get hazy. That shouldn’t have been enough to make her black out and it _definitely_ didn’t warrant the monster headache currently hammering against the back of her eyes.

“You had a very strong reaction to it, though.” Sai tells her, “Sakura said to tell you it was a result of mixing alcohol with your new medication. And she said to tell you to take two aspirin – _not_ Tylenol – and to drink a bottle of Gatorade before you go to sleep. She also said to tell you ‘I told you so’ but I don’t think it will have the same impact second hand.”

“Ugh, that bitch.” Ino groans, closing her eyes and resting her head on the cool glass again. “I hate it when she’s right.”

“She mentioned you might say that.”

It feels good to have her eyes closed, but Ino knows better than to let herself fall asleep again. She only has to make it a few more miles, so she starts talking, “How’d you get stuck with me?”

It’s not that she doesn’t _trust_ Sai. She knows Sakura would never let a creep drive her blacked-out ass home. It’s just that she doesn’t know Sai very well. She knows he’d filled the rare, mid-session opening at the school caused by Sasuke’s sudden departure and that Sakura and Naruto had initially disliked him. But something went down with his home life last summer and when everyone returned to school, the two had become weirdly protective of him. And tightlipped, which was annoying because Ino loved to gossip and Sakura was usually a good source.

“Sakura wanted to come with, but she was already almost over her curfew. Shikamaru and Choji had been drinking, so they had to go in Hinata’s van with everyone else.” Sai’s recounts things mechanically, like he’s reading off a list. Ino doesn’t remember seeing him drink at all and wonders if he’s straight edge or just has work the next day. “Also, I’m the only one who knows how to drive stick.”

“Huh?” Ino opens her eyes again, taking better stock of her surroundings and realizes with a start that they are in her car. She’s never seen it from the passenger side and it’s off-putting. He puts on a blinker and shifts into neutral to round a corner and she’s impressed at the smoothness of the motion. “Damn. Well, thanks, I guess. I would have had to nag Shikamaru into driving me back out to the park to get it tomorrow.” She glances at the clock which clicks over to 2:03. “Or today, I guess.”

“It isn’t a problem.” He says, smiling the weird, fake smile he sometimes uses in pictures. And then he tells her, “Your clutch is garbage.”

“Yeah, well,” She snorts at his bluntness and shrugs. “My da- I was going to have it replaced over the summer, but I didn’t have enough saved up to cover the labor.”

She gets through the sentence, but the damage is done. A single thought of her father and the tears well up in her eyes. She sniffles and tries to subtly wipe them away, but they’re coming harder now. _Damnit_. She thinks. _It’s been two months; it shouldn’t still hurt_ so much.

“I’m sorry.” Sai says, distressed. “I didn’t mean to – I’m supposed to be very careful with you because, well, as Naruto says, you’re ‘going through it’ right now.”

 _Going through it_.

 _Going_ through _it._

G O I N G THROUGH IT.

She turns the words over in her brain a dozen different ways and then, just as quickly as the tears came, laughter bubbles up in her chest and then she’s laughing _and_ crying hysterically at the same time and Sai comes to a complete stop at the sign before the turn off to her house and stares at her with wide, terrified eyes and she just laughs harder.

 _Going through it_ was such a Naruto thing to say and delivered in Sai’s voice it is funnier than any Vine compilation she’s ever watched. The fact that _it_ refers to the deaths of her coach, her best friend’s father, and her own father in quick succession over the course of two weeks immediately before her high school graduation just heightens the absurdity.

“I’m so sorry! Please, I’m not good with these situations and it’s still very new to me and Sakura will be so angry-“

“It’s alright.” Ino finally manages to get her breathing under control, and swipes underneath her eyes in a probably fruitless attempt to keep any more mascara from running down her face. He keeps staring and not driving, so she pats his hand on the gearshift and promises. “Really, I’m fine. I’ll give you a glowing review on Uber.”

He doesn’t laugh at her joke, but he does turn his eyes back to the road and gently rolls the car back into motion. He then unironically uses his blinker before turning into her driveway and Ino hides a smile in her sleeve. She’s never done more than a rolling stop at that sign, doubly at night with no other cars or people around. Shikamaru accuses her of driving like she doesn’t care if she lives or dies. Sai drives like he’s still taking the exam and he’s got something to prove.

The steady rumble of the engine drops off after Sai pushes the stick to _neutral_ and takes his foot off the clutch. He pulls the parking brake and is moving to hand her the keys when a sudden thought strikes her.

“How are you getting home?” She asks, peering at him closely.

He avoids her gaze, but she can’t tell if he’s being evasive or if that’s just what he’s like. “I’ll walk.”

“Where do you live?” She presses, curious. She’s pretty sure she’d know if he lived in her neighborhood.

“Strongtower Apartments.”

“That’s halfway across town!” And seedy as _hell_ , but she doesn’t mention that since she only knows because of a series of increasingly bad choices she made last Friday. “You can’t walk all that way. It’s after midnight and you’re wearing _black_. Someone will hit you!”

He shrugs, uncaring, and drops the keys into her waiting palm, “I’m used to it. I don’t have a car, so I walk most places.”

She frowns, the keys cold and heavy in her hand. Squeezing them once to reassure herself, she holds them back out to him. “Just take the Beetle, okay? Sakura would kill me if she knew I let you walk.”

“I don’t know what else she expected me to do.” He points out, frowning at her open palm. “How would you get it back?”

“You can return it tomorrow.” She says and then, to cut the tension, she offers him a heavy, playful wink. “When you pick me up for a date.”

She’s used to flirting. It’s fun and easy and she gets her way more often than not. She knows what she looks like and she’s been taking advantage of it more than ever this summer. She’s been disappointed by plenty of guys in the end, but she’s never been outright rejected.

So, it kind of stings when his face goes cold and he looks away from her entirely, keys still dangling between them.

“You’re drunk.” He tells her. “You shouldn’t say those kinds of things when you’ve been drinking.”

She’s not really drunk, not anymore, but her emotions are still raw and mutable from grief, so she drops the keys in the center of the dashboard and folds her arms across her stomach “It was just a joke.” She huffs, bitterness welling up to protect her fragile heart. “I know guys want to fuck me, not date me.”

She’s been doing a lot of that, too, this summer, along with the drinking and lying about it. She knows that Sakura is worried about the drinking and the kinds of parties she’s been going to. She knows her mom thinks she’s on drugs and she can’t even be offended because sometimes she _is_. But mostly she’s been doing anything to keep out of the house where she once lived with her father.

She’s so wrapped up in the pity party inside her head, Ino almost misses his mumbled reply. As it is, she turns her head to stare at him.

“What did you say?” She demands.

“I said,” He speaks as clearly as if he had never mumbled at all. “That I _would_ like to date you.” And then his dark gaze finally meets her own and she thinks she can see all the sad, vulnerable parts of himself he usually seals behind an icy wall. “So, I’d appreciate it if you didn’t tease me in that way.”

“I – you.” She fumbles for words, never more aware of the headache still pounding away at her senses. “You want to date _me_? I’m troublesome and a _mess_ and everyone knows it. Why would you want to date that?”

Now that he’s finally made eye contact, she kind of wishes he would stop because his gaze is very heavy and she wants to look away, but she can’t.

“I don’t know about troublesome,” She winces at the word because she knows how hurt Shikamaru would be to hear her use his words against herself. Sai presses on as if he hasn’t seen. “But I know you’re very kind and self-possessed. I know you are good at helping others, but bad at asking for help yourself. I know you’ve pulled away from your friends this summer because you worry your grief will burden them which takes incredible strength, even if it is misguided.”

He pauses and looks away like he’s considering whether or not he should say more and Ino finds herself leaning in. “I don’t think you’re a mess, Ino.” He says finally, carefully interlocking his fingers over the column of the steering wheel. “I think you’re the most beautiful person I’ve ever met.”

If he turned now and punched her in the face, Ino’s pretty sure she’d still want to kiss him. Instead, she leans forward and pushes the keys closer to him.

“Take the car.” She instructs and he glances between her and them with a sort of cautious hope. “Pick me up tomorrow at six. I like flowers and Thai food and boys who hold my hand before they kiss me. Okay?”

He nods and looks vaguely like she’s just punched _him_ in the face and she thinks to herself, _Good, serves him right for making me cry twice in one night_.

Because there are tears in her eyes again, so she climbs out of the car quickly before he can see. She wobbles a little as she climbs the stairs to her porch and maybe she is a little drunk still, but she also feels lighter than she has in weeks and it has nothing to do with substance abuse. Sai waits until she gets the door open and flips the hallway light on before turning over the engine and smoothly reversing back out into the road. Ino watches from behind the sheer curtains of the living room, smiling all the while.

When he disappears around the corner, she wanders into the kitchen, humming tunelessly to herself. She pulls a cold, blue Gatorade out of the fridge and two aspirin from the cabinet over the sink. For good measure, she texts a picture of all three to Sakura, so her friend knows she’s home safe. She receives a pink heart back immediately.

Her thumb hesitates over the keyboard as she drinks slowly. She wants to apologize for making her best friends worry all summer. She wants to say she loves her. She wants to ask about Sai and if it would always be that intense and honest.

She finishes the bottle and sends a yellow flower back.

Tossing the empty plastic into the recycling, she grabs a handful of cold, rotisserie chicken and puts it on a roll of bread, eating both while standing over the kitchen island. She chugs one more glass of water, just in case, and then starts to make her way upstairs. Her hand is on the railing when she freezes.

She’d just eaten one (small, pathetic, but _entire_ ) meal in the kitchen. She hadn’t cried over the sight of her dad’s coffee maker sitting clean and unused on the counter. She hadn’t even imagined him standing at the stove top, flipping pancakes and grinning at her like he used to on the Saturday mornings when mom opened the flower shop. She hadn’t thought about him at all.

She looks carefully at the space around her. The same space her dad occupied for decades, leaving imperceptible traces of himself all around. She looks at the family photos on the wall, the hardwood floors he’d polished every Sunday, the couch they moved into the attic in November so they could put up an oversized Christmas tree in the living room. She thinks about it all and she remembers being _happy_ here.

For the first time, she thinks it might be okay to get happy again, one day.

“Mom?”

Her mother’s head snaps up from where it had been closely peering at the QuickBooks tab open on her laptop in the study, shock on her face. She fights to keep the same surprise out of her voice, but Ino hears it anyway, “What is it, dear?”

Ino swallows down the guilt – she’s hardly been making things easier on her mother these last few weeks – and says, “I’m going out tonight.”

“Oh,” The worry that creeps around the edges of her mother’s confused smile is just another reminder how badly she’s been fucking up lately. “Thank you. For telling me.”

“I’m going out with a, um, boy. It’s a date.”

“Oh?”

“Yeah, he’s from school. You might recognize him, but I don’t think you’ve ever met. His name is Sai. He’s nice.” Ino clears her throat, shuffling uncomfortably on the soft carpet. “Anyway, uh, I’ll be home by ten. And I’ll call you if anything happens.”

Understanding tinged with relief washes over her mother’s face and despite the awkwardness, Ino is very glad she’s done this.

“Thank you.” Her mother repeats sincerely.

“No problem.” Even though it has been and sort of still is a problem. She’s turning to leave again when her mother speaks up.

“You’re a good girl, Ino.” She says, “But you’re allowed to lose your way sometimes. I know you’ll always come back in the end. I love you, very much.”

“I love you, too.” Ino answers, before walking away quickly. She can hear the sound of her car rumbling up the driveway and she doesn’t think Sai deserves to see her cry three times before they even make it to dinner.

**Author's Note:**

> Some headcanons for this AU that didn't make it into the story:
> 
> \- Sai was emancipated from his abusive father, which is why he lives in a very shitty apartment but is happy about it.
> 
> \- Ino and Shikamaru both give up their scholarships and go to the local community college for at least the first two years of school, so they can help out their families.
> 
> \- Naruto is, obviously, fostered by Iruka who was their very cool freshman year homeroom teacher. (He was very cool because he was fresh out of college and Struggling and just let his homeroom kids run kind of wild)
> 
> \- They all go to a weirdly uptight prep school with a strong emphasis on it's sports program despite being tiny. All of the kids play weird, niche sports despite not being competitive with the high-end East coast private schools. Please comment on what you think the rest of the Nine play.


End file.
